A World Without
by Kaisei13
Summary: My father should have let you die! I swear if its the last thing I do, I will make sure that mistake is corrected!" A thin tongue of flame flew from the end of his wand, the first binding of an Unbreakable Vow.
1. Prologue

"Fight back!" Harry screamed at him. "Fight back you cowardly--"

"Coward, did you call me, Potter?" shouted Snape. "Your father would never attack me unless it was four on one, what would you call him, I wonder?"

"My father should have let you die!! He should have let Moony tear you apart! I swear if its the last thing I do, I will make sure that mistake is corrected!" A thin tongue of flame flew from the end of his wand, binding around his own wrist, the first binding of an Unbreakable Vow.

"Potter you fool, you cannot bind yourself!" Another tongue of flame shot towards Snape, wrapping it self around his neck and connecting with the strand glowing around Harry's wrist.

"Potter!! You will kill us both with your foolish actions, release the vow!!" Snape struggled against the binding on his neck, his screaming at Harry had caused Draco to return to his side, and the blond was now trying to help Snape escape as well.

"This world would have been better without you!" Harry screamed as the third and last binding flew out of Harry's wand. The world burst into a brilliant white.

Just a quick prologue to see what you all think...if you hadn't guessed, this is the scene at the end of HBP where Harry is chasing Snape after he has killed Dumbledore. The first two lines are directly from HBP. And no I have not given up on my other story, the next chapter should be done pretty soon.


	2. Mistaken Identity

The stars above him were fading into dawn when he came too, his head was pounding viciously and a quick survey of the area told him he was alone. Harry stared mournfully at the gates of the Hogwarts, the deatheaters were gone and Harry's anger left with them leaving him numb.

Harry looked towards Hagrid's hut, hoping that the games keeper was able to make it to safety when the deatheaters started it on fire, but in the soft light of the rising sun, the hut seemed perfectly undamaged. He walked slowly to the hut, his bruised and in some places bloody body protested the movement, but he needed to make sure Hagrid was alright. The vegetable patch around the hut was barren and as Harry drew closer he could see the windows were fifthly, the house was seemingly abandoned and looked as if it had been for years.

Confused Harry made his way to the castle, he tried to not look towards the astronomy tower, but his gaze led him to the base. To where the body of the greatest wizard he had ever known should lay. But there was no body, a burst of hope flew through his veins, perhaps it had been a ruse, maybe he was truly alive.

Harry ran to the front doors, they stood undamaged even though Harry knew they had been blackened only the night before when the deatheaters blasted them open. He pulled open the door just enough for him to slip through, closing the massive piece of wood behind him. The smears of blood were gone from the flagstone and the hall was eerily quite, all the rubies that had spilled from the broken Gryffindor had been cleaned from the floor and the hourglass repaired. Harry couldn't help but notice the amount of points for his house had dropped to almost nothing, while the Slytherin hourglass was filled to the brim.

Harry walked silently through the halls towards the Headmasters office, his wand at the ready. Where was everyone? Hogwarts should be crawling with aurors by now. A few early risers passed him in the halls, giving him awkward looks as they hurried past him, but he nor they stopped for questioning. The gargoyle guarding the Headmaster's office was soon in sight.

"Toffee éclairs." Harry said softly to the guardian, but the password did not work. Fifteen minutes later he had gone through all the candy and sweets he could think of without any luck. Perhaps the office had been locked when... Harry couldn't even think it, couldn't accept it without seeing Dumbledore's body. He left the corridor and made his way towards Gryffindor tower, eyes on his feet, not wanting anyone he passed to see the tears of frustration and sorrow running down his cheeks. What was going on? Had the whole attack been some horrible dream?

"Potter!! What happened to you!! Another one of your pranks gone bad?" Harry wiped the tears from his cheeks before turning to look at the person who had spoken to him, the face was familiar, but he couldn't remember it ever looking so young. Perhaps Rodolphus Lestrange had been a handsome man before he was imprisoned, as the man who stood before him was defiantly handsome, unlike the broken and aged man he had seen at the Department of Mysterious last year.

"Professor Lestrange, I have asked you and Professor Potter time and again to please use your titles around the students, we wouldn't want to set a bad example now would we." His head of house looked aged, well she always had looked old, but her grey hair was now almost completely white, and the lines around her eyes were deep. Why wasn't she drawing her wand? Why did she call a deatheater Professor? Why did she call him Professor?

"My apologies Headmistress McGonagall. See you both at breakfast, Professor Potter." The world had officially gone insane, it was too much for Harry to process and he went to his knees, clutching his head in his hands.

"Professor Potter!! Potter!! James what is wrong!!"


	3. Your Little Bastard

The white ceilings of the hospital wing greeted him as he woke. He could hear voices arguing from behind his closed curtains, but they were in hushed tones.

Harry recovered his glasses from the side table, but his wand was missing. He patted down his robes trying to see if he had placed it in his pocket, but he was no longer wearing his clothes. The hospital pajamas where itchy against his skin and his mind was foggy.

A few potion bottles were empty on his bedside table, a calming potion and another for minor scratches and abrasions. Harry's mind should be panicking right now, but it seemed as if the calming potion was extra strength, and he could seem to bring up any emotion aside weariness.

"I swear Potter, he looks just like you!! Are you sure you didn't have some sordid affair with a Mudblood sometime in your past?" Lestrange said in a joking tone of voice. Funny, Harry didn't think anyone who spent a significant amount of time with Bellatrix for a wife would be able to still have a sense of humor.

"Why would it have to be with a Mudblood?" Harry knew that voice, but he had never in his life heard Ron say Mudblood with such venom... This had to have been a bad dream, or maybe Harry had finally snapped. He couldn't seem to find the will to care, damn potion.

"Mr. Weasley, you should not be listening in on your Professors conversations. And for all of you; that word may be used in common society nowadays, but I do not want it repeated in my hospital ward. Am I understood?"

"Yes Madam Pompfrey." Three voices spoke in unison. Harry curtains were thrown open just in time to watch Ron walk out of the hospital wing.

"I knew all of that racket would wake you, sometimes their arguing could wake the dead. Well young man, it seems as if you have had quite the night, my diagnostic spells indicate that you had the cruciatis curse cast on you last night." Harry nodded absently, his eyes were a bit fuzzy without his glasses, but he could still recognize his own face looking at him from the foot of his bed. James Potter was staring at him intently, a dark scowl on his face.

"Young man, I need you to pay attention!" The staring contest was broken between father and son by Madam Pompfrey.

"Yes, I was.... what is going on? Where is the Headmaster? I don't know what is happening." Harry endeavored not to look at the silent man standing at the end of his bed. This whole thing must be a dream, not a good idea to get attached to a dream.

Madam Pompfrey patted his hand gently before sweeping her wand over him. The spell gave left a blanket multicolored lights hovering over his body, the darkest patch pulsing over his forehead. The nurse gasped in shock, apparently being the only one in the room able to decipher the lights. She waved her wand a second time, canceling her spell and sending off what Harry recognized as a patronus message. She took a moment to recover her wits and continuing her questioning.

"Well why don't we start with your name?" Harry didn't see the harm in giving his real first name, but he decided to leave off the last with his father hovering over him.

"Harry." All three people surrounding his bed frowned when he only gave his first name.

"No last name? Do you remember how you got here?" Her tone was only slightly reprimanding, but the glare his dad was giving him was counteracting his potion induced calm.

"I was by the gate, and I went to check on Hagrid, but he wasn't there, and the Headmaster's body wasn't where it should be, and everything is different. You should look older, and you're dead." Harry was muttering and those around him weren't able to decipher half of the words that were coming out of his mouth. Another dose of calming potion was unceremoniously shoved down his throat, and Harry was once again mellow and uncaring.

"He's barmy, fits right in with you Potter; maybe they had crucio on him too long." Something in James' eyes softened and he sighed and turned to the mediwitch.

"Can you run the tests Madame Pompfrey, see if he is related to me?" She nodded and went to explore her storage closet of potions.

"Of course he is related to you Potter, he is your carbon copy, well aside that scar and those eyes, and aren't they a gorgeous green, Bella would just eat you up." A shudder ran through Harry's frame at the thought of being near the insane women. Who knows if that crazy bitch was actually a cannibal?

"Shove off Lestrange, your wife doesn't need any more toys." Pompfrey moved back into the room holding a clear vial in her hands. The potion inside was colorless as well and she held out a needle to James.

"A drop of blood from each of you please." The elder Potter pricked his finger and allowed a drop of blood to fall into the open vial. The blood diluted in the potion and it turned a flowery yellow. He walked over to Harry and tried to grab his hand, but Harry pulled away from him and curled up with his back to the headboard.

"Harry don't make me put a body bind on you, please." Harry sighed and held out his hand, the needle pricked his skin quickly and soon his blood joined his father's in the vial. A few swirls and the liquid turned a bright green.

"Green, he is your son James." James sighed and ran his hands through his messy hair, up close Harry could see that his father had crow's feet starting at the edges of his eyes, and it looked as if he had not shaved this morning, his stubble and hair had a peppering of grey starting to show. And he didn't have a wedding ring on his finger, were they divorced, was his mother dead?

"Is there any way to tell who his mother is?"

"No, this potion can only confirm parentage if I have a blood sample."

"The Dark Lord is not going to be pleased with you Potter; he didn't get a Hogwarts letter, so he isn't a pureblood." The Dark Lord? Why would Voldemort care what his father did? Was his dad a deatheater?

"I swear I didn't know about him Lestrange, what are you sixteen? Seventeen?" Harry nodded dumbly. "That would have been only a few years after I graduated, I was piss drunk half the time, who knows how many girls I was with during those years, and how many I didn't use protection spells with." Wow his dad was with that many people? Why was he drunk, shouldn't he have been in auror training with Sirius and getting married to his mother?

"He has a wand at least, so his mum wasn't a muggle. What is your mother's name boy?" Harry shrugged, and quickly thought of a lie.

"I don't know, I grew up in an orphanage." That sounded good, it wasn't too farfetched.

"A muggle orphanage?" Did wizards even have orphanages, Harry wasn't sure, so he nodded an affirmative to Lestrange.

"Then how did you get a wand, how do you know about the magical world?" Harry had never been very good at lying. It warred with his Gryffindor sensibilities, and right now his lying skills were more below par than usual.

"The owner was a squib." He didn't sound very convincing to even himself, but Lestrange seemed to run with it.

"What orphanage did you go to, that squib should be in Azkaban for getting a wand for a Mudblood." His father was looking at him closely, anger, confusion, but mostly sorrow written across his face.

"I don't remember."

"Bollocks, you just want to protect your lawbreaking squib friend. Let's see if I can't find what I want by myself. Legtimas!" The way Lestrange pushed into his mind was much different from his lessons with Snape. The attempt was pitifully weak and Lestrange was only able to see a few snippets of Harry running through the entrance hall as he chased after Snape before he was able to throw him from his mind.

"Your little bastard is an occlemens Potter, maybe if the Dark Lord lets you keep him he can help you with the skill."


	4. The Third Binding

Lestrange left soon after his failed attempt, he had his fifth year DADA class to teach and a few Head of House problems to get taken care of with his Slytherins.

"So why are you here?" James ran a tired hand over his face before looking to the silent boy on the hospital bed.

"Do you need money? Papers? I can probably get you as far as the Americas, but the Dark Lord will soon rule there too." Oh god, what was going on, this can't be real, this has to be a dream, just a dream. I just have to play along with the dream, I'll wake up soon.

"Why would I go there?" The calming potion was quickly wearing off, he didn't want to hear this.

"Have you been living under a rock? All of Europe and most of Asia have been taken over and are under the rule of the Dark Lord. All the Mug....Mudbloods in Europe have been killed or sterilized, most of the half-bloods as well. The ones that have survived are used worse than houselves and any magical children born to muggles 'mysteriously' die in their sleep." His voice was sad, remorseful, but Harry barely heard his tones, in the real world over half of Gryffindor had at least some muggle blood, were they all dead? Was Hermione dead? Seamus, Dean, Colin, Dennis, were they all killed in their sleep?

"How do they find them?"

"Hogwarts register, everyone that is born with magic shows up on the rolls as soon as they perform any accidental magic." They would be able to find everyone in England that way, but maybe others had escaped. Harry didn't want to think about what his father had to be to survive in a world run by Voldemort.

"Do you serve him?" James' hand rubbed his left forearm absentmindedly, and he spoke without emotion.

"Everyone serves. You defy him, you die." Harry felt sick, his father was a deatheater.

"No one fights back? You just let all those people be killed, all those children!" A hand slapped over his mouth, a face so like his own bent close to his ear.

"Keep your voice down, if someone heard you.... we tried, we failed, and this is the world now. Lestrange is my friend; he won't say anything to the Dark Lord about you unless someone else does. He is already going to head off that Weasley boy and oblivate him, so we need to get you out of this country. Unless you want to be sterilized and put in chains." Lestrange was his friend? Harry sighed, this defiantly wasn't real, there was no way that it could be, in a few minutes he would wake in his bed in Gryffindor tower, and this would all be a bad dream. Dumbledore would be alive and Snape would still be a greasy potions master/spy for the light. It's all just a bad dream.

"Sterilized?" He mumbled past his father's hand, playing along makes dreams go faster...maybe he should go jump off the astronomy tower, you always almost always wake up before you die in dreams.

"They make it so you can't have children." That makes sense, wouldn't want any accidents, wouldn't want any more innocent children to have to kill.

"Do you have any children?"

"Aside you, no." If Harry was never born, then he wasn't The-Boy-Who-Lived, and Voldemort should have gone after Neville instead, but what else had changed.

"Married?" Was his mum dead as well....dream, all a dream. Of course his mum was dead in his reality anyway and so was his father.....even though he is talking to him right now.

"No." Nothing would have stopped his real dad from being with his mum, he had been after her for years at Hogwarts, she is probably dead.

"Why not?"

"Never found anyone that I wanted to share my life with, well, at least no one that wasn't off limits." He looked angry, she's probably dead. "So, tell me about yourself."

"Not much to tell."

"Hmm, how about we start with your family. You're a horrible liar by the way; you didn't grow up in an orphanage." That earned James a slight glare and pout.

"Lestrange believed me, so I guess I can't be that bad." His words were grumbled and caused James to laugh, Harry could get used to that laugh.

"No, he didn't believe you, but that gives us some plausible deniability."

"I don't feel like talking about my family." Relive his memories of the Dursley's with his dream father, yeah right.

"Alright, how did you find out about me being your father then?" He could tell James was getting frustrated with him

"I didn't know about you."

"Then why are you here?" Harry looked down at his hands curled in his lap and for a brief moment, he saw a band of flame flare around his wrist.

"The Vow." Harry's voice was barely a whisper, but James heard it.

"Vow, what vow?"

"Where is Snape, I have to talk to him!" James went pale at the mention of the name; his voice was quiet, face riddled with guilt.

"Snape? Severus Snape? How do you know that name?"

"Where is he?" What had he done, he couldn't have changed everything with an Unbreakable Vow.

"Snape is dead; he died before you were even born." Another flare in Harry's vision, the third binding of Harry's Vow was wrapped around James' wrist.

"How?" His question wasn't towards his father, but he answered anyway.

"He was killed by a werewolf in our sixth year."


	5. Hope For Dad

Sorry this took so long. I have been pretty sick for awhile, but I am happy to say that I am getting better. As evident that I am writing again! I have changed a bit in the chapters before this, so if you are a repeat reader you might want to check it out. It's all pretty short up to here to not much to read.

I hope you enjoy, so on with the show.

"How do you know that name?" James asked once again, but Harry's mind was running on overload and he wasn't listening. If Snape died, then what happened to Remus? What had he done, his father was alive, but the cost was too great. How many people had survived simply because Snape had lived? Harry snapped back to the outside world as Lestrange walked back through the doors and pulled a small vial from his pocket.

"Potter, here, nicked this from Slughorn." James took the vial slowly and turned back to Harry, the youngest Potter had a good idea what was contained within.

"Verita Serum?" Harry questioned his father's hazel eyes bore into his own.

"To make sure this isn't some kind of trick."

"No, I won't take that." There were too many things he couldn't say, he couldn't afford to be questioned by a deatheater.

"We can't trust you unless you take it Harry." He shook his head and backed away from James as far as he could on the small bed.

"No, there are things I can't tell you." James sighed then looked to Lestange, before looking back at his son.

"Alright, we will lay out the questions that I am going to ask you before you take this, is that acceptable?" Harry eyed his father and the man beside him before answering.

"Depends on the questions." Another sigh, before James cast a quick look around the hospital ward, making sure no one else was present.

"Alright then, I guess the first question would be 'Are you working for the Dark Lord?' That question is non negotiable." Harry snorted before giving his answer.

"And also very vague, Voldemort isn't the only Dark Lord there ever was. You should really be more specific." James' mouth almost hit the bed sheets as it fell open in surprise while Lestrange winced before hissing out a reprimand.

"You dare to say his name!?" Harry shrugged before employing Hermione's' common answer to the question.

"Fear of a name increases fear of a thing itself."

"And he has earned that right to be feared! Don't ever say his name out loud again; it's a one-way ticket to a pretty green light." Harry scoffed, as if saying that name was the only reason Voldemort wanted to kill him.

Harry refused to answer where he had heard Snape's name but they agreed on a few more basic questions. Were you sent to kill me? Are you a spy? Are you a pod person sent to slowly help the aliens take over the world? Well perhaps not that last one, but Harry still potion clogged mind thought it would be amusing to say. They had quite a long list going after all was said and done.

Finally the Verita Serum was swallowed, albeit reluctantly and the list of questions were asked and answered to the satisfaction of both parties. All was going well, until Lestrange broke the rules.

"Why are you at Hogwarts?"

"That wasn't one of the questions Lestrange!" James sounded angry, but his attention was on his son, wanting to know the answer as well. But there was no single answer to that question, so all of Harry's reasons came spilling out.

"To learn to be a wizard, to feel accepted, to get away from the Dursley's, to train my friends to survive, to learn how to kill the person who wants to kill me, because of the Vow." That last reason surprised Harry and unfortunate for him, Lestrange as well.

"What Vow, who did you make a Vow with Harry?"

"Lestrange, stop!" James brandished his wand at his friend and quickly spouted off a silencing spell.

"Myself, to correct my father's mistake." It was not Lestrange this time that broke the rules.

"What mis....." The doors opened with a loud creak as the headmistress entered the room.

"Professor Lestrange, Professor Potter, Madame Pompfrey has informed me of the test results and I know this has been an interesting day for you, but you do both have students to get back too." McGonagall was looking intently at Harry, but not at his eyes like most would. She was looking at his scar.

"Of course Headmistress. Perhaps Harry here could wait in my rooms until classes are done for the day?" Lestrange was pouting, Harry felt like laughing, the Verita Serum was making him feel a bit drunk and seeing a grown man pout because he had a silence spell on was just too amusing.

"Does anyone else know he is here? That he is yours?" There was an oddly shaped wrinkle in Harry's blankets. It looked like a dragon that was roaring every time he moved his big toe. Harry's snickers and fascination with the dragon wrinkle was making him lose track of the conversation.

"Only Lestrange and Pompfrey, but the youngest Weasley boy was here earlier."

"That has been taken care of already, I'm not sure how long it will take to get him safely away, but no one else must know that he is here or we risk someone telling You-Know-Who about him." Ok, the wrinkle wasn't really that amusing anymore. Hmm, the potion must be wearing off.

"He can't go to the McKinnen's, they are full up already, and with all these new portkey shields who knows how long it will take to get everyone away." McKinnen, Harry knew that name, she was an Order member killed with her family by deatheaters.

"Send him to the Prewett's; they only have a few there." Molly Weasley's family, her brothers were killed by deatheaters too.

"They were raided last week, we got a warning off right before the attack so everyone is safe that we know of, but wherever they are, they haven't been able to get any messages out." Raided? Harry's mind was finally catching back up to the conversation. They were talking about members of the Order of the Phoenix, people still fighting against Voldemort's rule. His father was still fighting for good, with Lestrange at his side?

"You could send him to Black." Harry's heart leapt, Sirius was alive too!!

"Looks like my only option; I'll come back here after my classes are finished to take him."

"No, I'll take your classes for the day, get him out of here before anyone else sees him, you can use the floo in my office."

"Come on Harry, can you walk?" Harry nodded his head as he rose from the mattress, James handed him a clean set of plain black robes and turned to face the door to give Harry some privacy as he changed. Harry felt very strange without pants and a shirt on under his robes, but he knew that was how many of the pureblooded families wore them. With his glasses back in place he finished adjusting his collar and walked to where his father was waiting by the door. A shimmery cloak and a familiar wand were waiting in his hands.

"Here is your wand. Now I want you to stay under this cloak, don't talk and try to walk softly, class is in session so there shouldn't be very many students in the halls. When we get to the headmistress' office we are going to floo to my home first, I'll send a message when we get there so Black can open the floo for us."" Harry slipped on the invisibility cloak and followed his father out the door.

It was a quite walk through the halls of Hogwarts, many of the students greeted James with wide smiles and a few of the older girls with blatant flirtation. They arrived at the Gargoyle with Harry almost gagging at the things the girls whispered when they thought they were out of ear shot of Professor Potter. The image of his father being in the astronomy tower with Pansy Parkinson was not kind to his psyche. Harry hoped that they were all just fantasy's that the girls thought up, he didn't think his father would ever have sex with a student.

"Devon Rex" The gargoyle slowly moved out of the way, looking as if he could see Harry underneath the cloak.

"The headmistress really likes cats; all of her passwords seem to be different breeds." James mused as he entered the vast office. It wasn't that different from what Harry remembered, but the kind face of Albus Dumbledore snoozing in a painting on the wall was defiantly new. James noticed his fascination with the portrait.

"That is Professor Dumbledore; he was the headmaster here while I was still in school. Come now, the head mistress put all the portraits in the school to sleep so that we could get you out of here, some of them are not trustworthy I'm afraid." Harry hurried over to the fireplace and took a handful of the powder.

"Wait for a full minute before you follow, I'll need to go ahead of you to unlock the floo." Harry nodded and watched as his father disappeared into the flames. He looked around the office; it seemed as if he was only here a few hours ago. He walked toward the desk and looked at the portrait of the man he had seen murdered. So he was dead here as well, Harry wondered how it happened. A small dish of sherbet lemons sat on a pedestal under his portrait and he could almost hear that kind voice asking if he wanted one. Harry stepped back to the fireplace, the sweet taste of lemon in his mouth.

"Potter Manor!"


	6. A Black With Red Hair

"Took you long enough son. I was worried I was going to have to come back for you." Harry's breath caught a little at being called son, but it didn't seem James even realized what he had said.

"Mitzi!" The smallest house-elf Harry had ever seen popped into the room. She (or so Harry assumed it was a she) worn a pristine white tea towel that had been shaped to look like a frilly maids apron. Thankfully it was equipped with a piece to cover the back as well.

"Master is back!! We was not been expecting you until end of term." Her voice was stern, as if she was reprimanding James for coming without notice.

"Yes well Mitzi this is Harry, take him to get some food while I contact Black."

"Of course Master, this way Young Master." Harry followed the diminutive house elf through the Manor. It was a huge building; the ceilings rose far above him and were carved in intricate patterns. It was like walking through a museum that he had gone to for a school trip when he was still living with the Dursley's. Beautiful paintings and sculptures where placed tastefully throughout the hallway he walked down. The lighting made everything bright and the white walls and arches showed no signs of dust or dirt. He was brought to a dining room, well hall more like it. The table could hold at least 50 guests, but only two place settings were set. One on either end of the table, Harry guessed there would be no conversation over lunch. Harry sat down where Mitzi directed him to. Harry could only laugh as the little elf used her magic to push his chair in, place a napkin on his lap and levitate his food too him all at the same time. A talented little elf indeed.

"Do hurry and eat Harry, the floo will be open in exactly fourteen minutes and 15 seconds." James announced as he rushed into the room and grabbed a turkey sandwich from Harry's plate.

"Hey, that was mine!" Harry said without conviction as James leaned on the table beside Harry.

"Should have eaten it faster then." He said with a smile as he stole a few chips off Harry's plate as well.

"Master should not be sitting on the table. What would the Mistress say if she knew!!" The poor elf was getting teary eyed as she spoke.

"Quite down Mitzi, mother and father aren't even here to find out. Your grandparents are currently on and extended holiday, as are most of the old purebloods who didn't agree with You-Know-Who's rule. Perhaps I can send you to stay with them for awhile. I'm sure they would love to meet you."

"I have grandparents?" He said it mostly to himself, but it caused James to burst out laughing.

"Of course you have grandparents, what did you think I just oozed out of the ground or something?" Most of the food was gone from Harry's plate, most in part to James, and both Potter's made their way back to the room Harry had first arrived in.

"The address is 12 Grimmauld Place, can you remember that?" James asked as he took a handful of powder from an ornate box.

"Yeah." His voice was a little choked; he was going to see Sirius again. He couldn't help but think it was strange that he was more excited to see his Godfather than his real father, but then of course he had never really met his father, and the pain of Sirius' death was still so fresh.

"Black!! Are you here?" The house was quite when they arrived in the kitchen floo. Gone was the oppressive darkness that he had always felt when entering Grimmauld Place, instead the kitchen felt welcoming and bright. There was a window now above the sink, even though Harry knew the kitchen was underground. Light poured in from it and he could see a view of the muggle street outside. A scuffling by the door got both his and James' attention.

"Potter, what are you doing here?" Harry's breath left him for a moment as he stared at the woman entering the kitchen. Her red hair was beautiful and her green eyes sparkled, but her voice held no warmth as she spoke to James.

"Mrs. Black, it's nice to see you again. I sent a letter to Sirius to open the floo; I have a favor to ask of you." She wiped her hands on a dishrag almost violently when James spoke of a favor, Harry couldn't help but stare at the face he had only seen in pictures. His staring caught her attention though, and she turned to look at him with a small smile on her face.

"And who might you be?" She asked in kind voice that Harry could almost remember from his dreams. He couldn't seem to find his own voice though and James answered for him.

"This is my son, Harry. Harry this is Lilly Black." Black, she wasn't James' wife, but she was still alive.

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Black."

"And you Harry. I wasn't aware that you had a son Potter." As she turned back to James he couldn't help but think how much Sirius had betrayed his father, he knew how much his dad had loved Lilly.

"Well until today I didn't either. Harry needs a place to stay until we can get him to the Americas."

"Well, we have a few rooms now that most of the kids are gone. Do you have any belongings with you Harry?"

"No Mam." All he had now was his wand, Hedwig was gone, the map, the invisibility cloak, his broom, his photos of his friends and parents. It all hit him so hard then, that his life up this morning was gone. He felt sick.

"Alright then, my eldest left some things behind that should fit you, straight upstairs, first door on the left." Eldest son? Seems as if Sirius and his mother had been busy.

"Lilly, is someone here?" The voice came from somewhere upstairs.

"In the kitchen darling." Darling, that didn't sound that Sirius' voice. And when the man entered the room Harry understood why.

"Potter, what brings you here?" His voice held a hint of anger and his face was not welcoming in the least.

"Harry this is Regulus Black, Lilly's husband, Black this is my son Harry."

"Your son?"

"Harry here is going to be staying with us for awhile Regulus. Be a dear Harry and help me with lunch while your father and my husband have a chat, we have quite a few mouths to feed." Making food, that was something Harry could do well without having to concentrate. He had a feeling a mental breakdown was on its way.

"Yes Mam."


	7. Far Reaching Consequences

"Wand away Harry, I find that making food by hand always makes it taste better." Harry hadn't planned on using his wand anyway so no protest was required.

"Well you know your way around a kitchen don't you" Lilly said after a long silence between them. She had set Harry to work peeling potatoes while she prepared three raw chickens for roasting.

"Why do you say that?" He peeled each potato quickly and efficiently before cutting them in large chunks and putting them on the bottom of the pan.

"Well I know my son wouldn't have a clue what to do with those potatoes, did you cook with your mother often?" His knife slowed at the question, it popped in his mind to say that this was his first time cooking with his mother, but that didn't seem to be a very smart answer.

"No, she died when I was really young. I lived with my Aunt and Uncle, she taught me to cook." Peeling potatoes even before his hands could really fit around them. All while Dudley snacked on sweets at the table.

"I'm sorry, that must have been quite difficult for you." It was more difficult standing here, remembering his life without this woman, and not trying to break down and hug her. He continued peeling his potatoes until he felt a delicate arm wrap around his shoulders. He left himself be pulled into the first hug from his mother that he could remember. He had almost an inch on her height wise, but she still made him feel small. She smelled like vanilla and sage from spicing the chickens and she rocked him softly and made the small hushing noises that every mother seems to instinctually make when children were crying. And to Harry surprise, he was crying, a steady stream of tears were wetting his mother's shoulder where he had buried his face. He cried for never knowing this wonderful woman, for the home and friends that might be lost to him forever. It didn't take long for Harry to collect himself, and reluctantly step back from those warm arms.

"Thank you, for..."

"It's alright Harry; a good mother always knows when someone needs a hug. Why don't you go get changed and ready for dinner. These chickens should only take an hour or so and that should give you some time to meet the other children.

"Yes Mam." Lilly rolled her eyes good naturedly.

"Being called Mam makes me feel so old, please Harry, just call me Lilly." Harry would have rather called her Mam, at least it was only one letter away from Mum. Harry walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs to where the bedrooms were. The first door on the left was where he remembered Regulus' room to be back in his world. The walls were quite bare, but looked as if posters had been hung there only recently. He walked over to the chest of drawers and pulled out a worn pair of muggle jeans. They looked about the right size and he slid them on under his robes.

"You should probably shut the door if you are going to be getting dressed. There are young ladies in this household." Lanky black hair, hooked nose and pale skin.

"Snape?"

(No, I'm not going to torture you with another cliffy)

"Did Lilly tell you about me? I didn't hear her talking earlier" He looked quite similar to the vision Harry had seen during his "remedial potions" classes. Harry had seen this man's worst memory in his world, but he had an inkling that the worst was not the same in this world. His body still that of a teenager was gruesome, throat torn to shreds. Claw marks raked his bare chest and his robes hung around him in tatters. Worse though, all of his organs were exposed or missing from his stomach, it looked as the remaining ones had been half eaten. His hands were also destroyed, a few fingers missing all together. It looked as if he had fought back for quite awhile before he died.

"Are you done with your gawking?" The ghost version of Snape asked, pulling his tattered robes together, hiding all but his mangled throat and hands from view.

"Sorry, no Lilly didn't tell me." Just for a flash, Harry could see the red fire from his Vow burn across the ghost's neck. Harry felt sick, again.

"I usually greet all the newbie's right away, its amusing to watch them scream and wet themselves. You don't seem to be scared though, surprised, but not scared." Harry sat down on the four poster bed, and put his head in his hands.

"Not very talkative? You look very familiar; you could almost be the splitting image of Potter, if not for those eyes." Snape's face was right beside his ear; Harry could almost smell the silvery blood that was dripping on his shoe.

"That is because he is my son Snivillus." Harry didn't look up; he didn't want to see what his words had done. He had wished Snape dead, but no one deserved the death he had received.

"Potter, hard to believe you actually got it up to sleep with a woman, much less get her with child. Did you come for a visit with your mutt lover?" James rolled his eyes at the childish comment before sitting on the bed beside Harry.

"Back off Snape. I am in no mood to deal with you right now."

"Severus!! Could you come here for a moment?" Lilly's voice rang from downstairs, and with a final smirk, Snape left the room; trailing silvery blood at he went.

"I swear he is even more of a git now that he is dead. It's my fault though, I could have saved him, I should have been there. Maybe things would have been different." James looked old then, the crow's feet much more pronounced than before.

"What happened?"

"Snape was part of Slytherin house and my friends and I were Gryffindor. Of course we were destined to hate each other for that fact alone, but Snape was particularly greasy. There were four people in my group of friends, me of course. Sirius Black, he owns this house, Regulus is his brother. Peter Pettigrew, he was killed a few years ago in a raid. And the last was Remus Lupin, he was a werewolf. I think something Snape said or did finally pushed Sirius over the edge, neither of them will say what happened, but one day it was all in fun and the next…well. Sirius tricked Snape into Lupin's hideout, while he was transformed. I should have been there, but someone cast a curse on me that made my wrist suddenly burst into flames. At the time it hurt terribly and I rushed to the hospital wing. By the time I got there, the flame was gone and there was no damage, my robes weren't even singed. Those few minutes were all it took though, Snape died and Remus was executed within the week. Sirius locked himself in his room, I think out of all of us he was the closest to Remus. He never went back to the school, so it was just me and Peter. He was a bit dense, but he was all I had left. Lilly refused to talk to me, she and Regulus bonded over Snape's death. He is younger than her so they married right after he graduated. Headmaster Dumbledore was blamed for the deaths and removed from the school. All in all, the world just went bollocks."


End file.
